Ken Wyatt Announces additional funding to combat the syphilis outbreak in northern, central and southern Australia

On Monday 17 December, we welcomed Honourable Ken Wyatt MP, the minister for Aged Care and Indigenous Health, where he announced additional funding to support to expand the Enhanced Syphilis Response to new sites across norther and Central Australia and extend existing ACCHS (Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services), funded under the first two phases, beyond the initial 12-months funding period.

View the Federal Media release here.

TAIHS has been one of the already funded sites, there has been increased testing numbers recorded through this initial phase. 

"We have seen a more than 100% increase in the number of pathology STI tests, including syphilis, requested in 2018. TAIHS recently started the syphilis testing program from June 2018 and we are offering this test to all patients aged between fifteen and thirty-nine who visit our Garbutt main clinic. This will  to be rolled out to our other clinics from early 2019" said Dr Theunis Kotzee TAIHS Senior Medical Officer.

Since the inception of this proactivity there has already been a reported increase of nearly 100% in the number of patients actively obtaining this yearly screening for Syphilis and STIs when compared to 2017 figures. 

With funding from the Commonwealth, TAIHS have been able to increase their staffing capacity, by employing two additional nursing staff and one Indigenous Health Professional for boost the STI screening capacity further for 2019.

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